This was our first exhibit in our new space on second avenue in downtown Seattle. The space used to be a Vietnamese restaurant and we torn out walls and scraped grease and returned the corner storefront to it's 1920s beginning. Sure it was going to be torn down in 8 months to make way for a new apartment building (a Starbucks occupying our temporary footprint) but that didn't stop us from creating a beautiful space. 

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 reflected our vision of what an art space could be - something that built community, elevated local artists, mixed genres and practices and challenged the very idea of what a gallery was. We wanted discrete performances, music, booze. We wanted great art and installations, not as the totality of an art experience, but as a dimension of an art experience. Vital 5 stood as a reminder that art was more than something to look at - it was something to swim in,  taste, touch and explore. It was something that you became a part of, the second you walked in the door.

The artists on the wall included were Chris Thompson, Leiv Fagereng, Parris, Malcolm Williams and Greg Lundgren. The artists posing as murders (and occasionally poisoning, strangling, slashing or shooting staged gallery visitors) all had their own story and reasons for doing what they were doing. Tina LaPlant, Carrie Shraeder, Eric Maas and Evan Thompson slipped through crowd like spies and two medics carted out the falling bodies. There were clowns and two dominatrix spanking bare butts and one poor bartender filling up glasses with beer and tequila as fast as he could. It was a party. Megababe performed a wild, loud, frantic set of rock and roll. Guests arrived by limousine (one limousine that kept circling the block picking friends up around the corner for a short ride and a lot of speculation). There were balloon dogs and popcorn and big foam cowboy hats.

Was it perfect? Of course not. Was it produced on a shoe string budget? You better believe it. But the art was great, the summer night felt like pure magic and just about everyone in that room has some story to tell. It was our first show and for better or worse we left a very strong impression.